English Study Card

Intermediate – Advanced

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This section provides easy to understand explanations to help you get the most out of your English Study Card. It takes you through the layout and content and it gives you a brief explanation of each topic with examples.

The Glossary section on the website gives you a definition of the different grammar terms. Remember that you can use your English Study Card with any text book you may be using.

The EnglishStudy from Intermediate to Advanced displays28 independent tables with the most important grammar elements such Passive Voice, Perfect Tenses. Reported Speech, Conditionals, etc.

The Personal Pronouns and the Verb to Be determine the colours used throughout the card.

The personal pronouns (I, you, he, she, it, we, you and they), are represented in a light shade of yellow, purple, green and salmon.

The conjugations of the verb to be (am, is are), are represented in the same colour but in a darker shade.

VERB TO BE - DIFFERENT TENSES

This table shows you the conjugation of the verb to be in 11 different tenses for easy reference.

The verb tobeis used incorrectly quite often. Some things to remember:

Don’t use the auxiliaries do, did, with the verb to be.

Try to avoid this: I am go. You may be trying to say either “I go”, or “I am going”. Look at your table carefully, and you’ll find the logic behind the use of the verb to be. Create your own sentences and repeat them out loud so they become natural to you, the next time you find yourself saying “I am go”, you will immediately notice it’s wrong.

WORD ORDER

English keeps a very standard structure, unlike other languages. The couple of tables in your card show you the word order that the sentences follow.

It’s very straightforward:

The person who does the action + the action+ the affected person or thing + place+ time.

Note that the only difference between the affirmative and negative structure with the interrogative is the position of the auxiliary and the subject.

Example:

Shehas lived in New York since 2006.

Hasshe lived there for long?

CONTRACTIONS

Contractions are very common in oral and informal written form.

This table shows you the contractions for to be, have, has, will, wouldand hadfor the different pronouns.

There are contractions that are the same such as s in he’s been, and he’s being, is different. The first one is the contraction of he has. The second one is the contraction of he is.

Always look at the word that goes after the contracted word to know which word is being contracted.

Example:

He’sbeing kind.

He’s been kind. (Has/have are followed by the past participle: gone, written, done, etc.).

He’d beenkind. (Had is followed by the past participle: gone, written, done, etc.).

He’d be kind. ( Would is followed by the infinitive without to).

ADJECTIVE ORDER

In English, when you describe something, the description usually follows a certain order.

Example:

I bought a pair of beautifulbrownleatherboots. (opinion, colour, material, noun)

The table in your card shows the order of the characteristics, size, age, shape, etc.

SO, NEITHER, TOO

SO

This is another way of saying: “me too”. It agrees with the speaker. However, you need to use the same auxiliary that corresponds to the tense the speaker has used.

Example:

“I have a headache” (Present) – So doI, so does she, so do they.

“I have seen that movie” (Present Perfect) – So have I, so has she, so have they.

” I will miss you” (Future) – Sowill I, so willshe, so willthey.

“I lived in Bierritz” (Past) – So didI, so did she, so didthey.

NEITHER

Neither works the same as SO, but with negative statements. Note that the auxiliary remains the same.

To form an indirect yes / no question you need to use if or whether and change the structure to positive.

Example:

Direct: IsClaude French?

Indirect: Do you know ifClaude is French?

Direct: Does John have a ticket for the concert?

Indirect: Do you know if John hasa ticket for the concert?

INDIRECT WH-QUESTIONS

Indirect questions are usually used as a way of being polite.

The questions: Can you tell me…? Would you tell me..? Do you know…? are very common when using indirect questions.

Since you already have a question, the rest of the information has to be changed into a positive sentence.

A wh-question begins with question words such as where, what, when, how, etc.

To form an indirect wh-question change the sentence to a positive structure after the wh- question.

Example:

Direct: What time isit?

Indirect: Do you know what time itis?

Direct: Where doesGreg live?

Indirect: Do you know where Greg lives?

Direct: What time didthe plane land?

Indirect: Could you tell me what time the plane landed?

CONDITIONALS

Your card shows 4 types of Conditionals with examples.

Conditional tenses are used to express what happens under certain circumstances. What could happen or what we wish would happen.

Conditionals have an ifclause and a mainclause.

Use a comma after the if clause.

Type 0 Conditional. This type of Conditional is used to express facts and general truths. When the time being referred to is now or always and the situation is real. The if clause and main clause are both in the Present tense.

Example:

If you heatbutter, itmelts.

Buttermelts if you heat it.

Type 1 Conditional. This type of Conditional is used to refer to a possible condition and result based on real conditions in the present.

The if clause is in Present, the main clause is in Future.

Example:

If you drink plenty of fluids, you will get better soon.

You will getbetter soon if you drinkplenty of fluids.

Type 2 Conditional.This Conditional is used to refer to a hypothetical situation and its possible result.

The ifclause is in Past and the mainclause is formed with the modal verb would.

Example:

If I wonthe lottery, I would travel around the world.

I would travelthe world if I wonthe lottery.

Type 3 Conditional.This Conditional is used to refer to an unreal past condition and its possible result.

The if clause is in Past Perfect and the main clause is formed with would haveand the past participle of the verb.

Example:

If I had chargedmy phone, I wouldn’t have missed his call.

I wouldn’t have missed his call if I had chargedmy phone.

WISHES AS REGRETS

A regret in the present is when you wish things were different from the way they are today.

A regret in the past is when you are sorry for something which happened or didn’t happen. You wish it had been different.

When you have a regret in the Present, you express it by using wish and the verb in the Past tense.

Example:

I wish I hadmore time. I don’t have time.

When you want to express a regret in the Past, you use wish and the Past perfect tense.

Example:

I wish I hadn’t eaten too much. I ate too much.

You can also express impatience by saying you wish things were different using wish and would.

Example:

I wish he would hurryup, I’m so late. He’s taking his time and he’s delaying me.

Use wish and couldto express the desire of nearly impossible situations.

Example:

I wish I could fly. I can’t fly.

PASSIVE VOICE

The Passive Voice is used when the person doing the action is not important, but the action itself.

To form the Passive Voice you need to use the verb to be in and the verb in Past Participle.

The Passive Voice in your card shows the verb to bein 11 different tenses.

Example:

The old painting was soldfor a quarter of its worth.

The public has been advisedto buy the tickets in advance due to high demand.

It’s an honor to be invited to such an important event.

The deadline for the final project should have been respected.

HAVE THINGS DONE

When you want to say that someone does a service for you, unlike other languages, you need to use a specific structure. You need to usehave or get, the object being serviced, repaired, painted, etc. and the past participle of the verb.

Example:

I will have the carpet washed this weekend.

Ryan needs to get the car serviced soon.

We hadour photo takenby the photographer Sergio Melendez.

PARTICIPLE ADJECTIVES

This table gives you a few examples of participle adjectives.

Participle Adjectives look like verbs but they are adjectives, words used to describe something or someone. They end in -ed or -ing.

Use the participle Adjective with –ed ending when you want to talk about feelings.

Example:

I was really bored during the movie. (Not: I was really boring during the movie.)

Use the participle Adjective with –ing ending when you want to give an opinion.

Example

The movie was really boring. (Not: The movie was really bored.)

GET

This table displays different examples of the meanings of the verb get.

Get usually means to obtain, but when you use getand an adjective, the meaning changes to to become.